Impromptu photo shoot

 I often take AJ's monthly photos while Josie's napping since she tends to be a bit of a camera hog. I was braver than usual this month, and the results were pretty funny. Josie was not impressed when I wouldn't let her be in the picture, but the minute I said "ok, your turn!" she was happy to lay down "like a baby" and get her picture taken. It was so fun to get them in pictures together!

Sure, I got some good shots, but here's the reality. Josie doesn't want to smile and stay put while I figure out the settings on my camera or wait for the flash, her swinging arms land on Audrey's head at least once causing her to cry, the flash finally goes off while I'm moving to console the baby, and the wristlet for the camera photo bombs the picture.

Win.

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Audrey Joy - Four Months

Audrey turned 4 months old on March 18th. There were a lot of changes this month. She's no longer a newborn at all and we're getting to see more and more personality. For the most part, she is the happiest baby, full of huge smiles that can win over anybody. Just like before, she will search for eye contact and then give you the biggest reward - a huge smile and gurgle. It's something I bet I'll always be able to picture in my mind, because I try to memorize it every time she does it.

Audrey is wearing 0-3 month clothing and a few 3-6 month things. The hand-me-downs from Josie fit the best since they have been washed and shrunk. The new things are still huge on her. I'm not used to this since Jo was always right on with the recommended sizes, so I still try to dress her in clothes that end up being too big right now. Oh well, at least I know she'll get to wear them soon.

I also bought more clothes thinking there weren't many from Jo's old collection and then found a whole other bag full of clothes that would work. So Audrey has plenty of options this spring. When summer comes we'll be back to nothing. I've been keeping my eyes open at thrift stores for nicer summer clothes since Josie's clothes are all for the coldest part of winter when she was 6-9 months old.

We've had a somewhat difficult month with breast feeding. She gets impatient and thrashes around when she's awake while eating (during the day, night time is just fine because she's drowsy) and it takes quite a while and a lot of switching back and forth before she'll settle in and actually eat. It took me a while to figure out that I just had to wait out her impatience before she'd eat, so she wasn't eating all of what was there, causing my production to drop. That's my theory, anyway. Now I'm in the process of trying to catch up again which is so frustrating. I also think that she went through a growth spurt of the last two weeks because suddenly she can eat and eat and eat. I still don't feel like I've caught up, but she still has wet diapers and isn't acting hungry all of the time. Hopefully this will even out soon, because I'm nowhere near done with this breastfeeding journey. We've had it so good, I think it just seems worse in comparison.

With difficulty eating comes difficulty sleeping. Whether it's just the growth spurt or she's not as full during the day, she's gone from waking up once a night to waking up two to three times at least. There was even a while there where she was waking up five to six times. That was rough. This mama isn't used to that! When Jo was this age, we worked on sleep training her, but she was also a lot bigger and was already eating rice cereal so she was much fuller before bedtime. I don't feel like Audrey is ready for food yet, but I'm going to check with the doctor this week (Thursday) and see what she thinks. I'm in no hurry to introduce solids but if it means she'll sleep better, I'm all for it.

I did start being intentional with nap times during the day. I used to just go by her cues, but now I'm trying to see what time it is and at least get the first two in at around 8:30-9:00 and then 12:30-1:30. After that, it really depends on what our day looks like (whether or not I have lessons, small group, staying home, etc).

Just this past week (technically right at four months), she started intentionally using her hands to grab at toys and things in front of her when on her tummy. She also likes being on her tummy sometimes, something I've been waiting for eagerly, and will be content on the floor for much longer periods of time without me in her face the whole time. Again, this is so different than Josie who would impatiently look around me when I tried to interact with her. I love how different my girls are.

Audrey is all about rolling over and is never where I left her when I go to pick her up. Thankfully everything is still baby proofed and I can trust that she won't hurt herself. The biggest danger she has is her big sister who loves to "help" when mommy's not looking. Many a times I've turned around to see Josie trying to help her "stretch" or "read a story" or "play with her toy" as Josie tells me. It's hilarious, but I can't really let it go on for too long because we haven't quite learned what being gentle is like. Most of the time, Audrey is a great sport and will laugh and laugh at her sister, but sometimes it's just too intense and I need to rescue her. I'm glad she is learning to laugh and play with Jo though because it's only going to be more rough as she gets bigger!

While Audrey can turn on the smiles and interact with the best of them, she also knows how to be heard when she's upset. There's a lot more drama in this little one than we had originally thought and it took us by surprise. Hubby and I looked at each other in shock during our Florida trip when she threw a fit and screamed in our face over and over again, because it seemed completely unlike her. We quickly learned how to troubleshoot and solve the problems, but we scrambled a bit and felt like first time parents all over again. I guess the honeymoon stage that comes with a sleepy newborn is done and we have to adjust with it. She's still a happy baby and of course we adore her, but she's not low maintenance like we had thought she'd be. In fact, sometimes she's the more difficult one of the two of them, which just goes to show how much each girl changes while growing up.

She still loves to be swaddled while she sleeps. We bought her more swaddle blankets in the bigger size (that we never used with Josie because she outgrew them and then stopped being swaddled to sleep) and will do it as long as we can. She sleeps amazing when she's swaddled tight. She still sleeps great in public although she hasn't learned to love sleeping in her car seat.

And here's the comparison of the two. We've been hearing more and more that she looks so much like her sister, although I feel like she's looking less and less like her. Their personalities are so different, and it doesn't show through in pictures as much. What do you think?

Those cheeks. I just love them. She's such a blessing!

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Just a peek

... at what you'll see at our house. We have been spending a lot of time like this lately. I really do love wearing this little baby. She's my favorite accessory!

A lot of times, after taking a wonderful nap (I imagine they are the best out of all the different places she sleeps since she sleeps so hard and wakes up so happy when I'm wearing her) she will look up at me with her big blue eyes and a huge smile and just stare at me, even if I'm not looking back at her.

She's such a sweetie. These moments are what I imagine I'll miss down the road.

Audrey - Three months

Audrey Joy turned three months old on February 18th. There haven't been a lot of changes this month, just growing and smiling.

Audrey is a huge smiler. She craves face to face time and really lights up when you look at her. In this way she's so different than her sister. Josie would be more interested in everything else and had no time for silly things like face to face time.

This month, we visited a chiropractor because she started to scream out every time I laid her down on her back. The difference was noticeable immediately and now she can lay and play for quite a while before getting bored or tired. 

Breast feeding has gone great. We are in a good rhythm and routine, even though we don't stick to a strict schedule. I remember so clearly with Josie that sticking to a strict routine benefited her a lot. I have not noticed a need for this at all with Audrey, and its working for us now since I'm home with her all day. 

The challenge with this is when she is at her grandma's. I try to get her fed and changed right before we head over, but her nap times are often random so it's hit or miss if she gets one there. Thankfully, she will fall asleep right after and get a great nap in that doesn't affect bed time.

Sleeping is also going great. I couldn't ask for it to be better. She is very particular in regards to this however. While she's laid back about almost everything else in her life, she has serious preferences when it comes to how she sleeps. We use SwaddleMe blankets during naps and at bedtime and also wrap another blanket around her tight so she doesn't get cold. Since she can't move her arms, I'm not as worried about her getting the blanket around her face. Even with all of her squirming, she has never managed to get free. You'd think she wouldn't like the restriction, but she loves it. She also has to have her pacifier in her mouth until she's in a deeper sleep. I've started putting her down in the bassinet (afternoon nap and after she eats in the early morning because I'm a bit lazy and don't want to bring her back to their room or risk waking up her sister) or crib (for the morning nap and at night) and giving her time to fall asleep on her own. She falls asleep so well when we are holding her, but if she is warm and wrapped up tight, she falls asleep pretty well on her own too.

Thankfully, she also sleeps well in public or in different environments. I so hope this continues. Josie outgrew this pretty quick and it was so hard to go places that were around nap time or bed time. The flexibility is great when the baby sleeps through anything!

This month, Josie has taken a particular interest in her baby sister. She loves to be silly and does what she can to get her to smile. Audrey is often a bit wary of her, which is completely understandable. I don't know what I would think either if a bigger person was in my face, kicking me, pushing me, and trampling me every couple of minutes. I am constantly explaining to Josie how to be gentle and just aware of where her sister is. She's still a little too young to understand personal space but she'll figure it out soon. In the meantime, she's making Audrey one tough cookie.

Audrey's been sitting up in the bumbo seat and that has really helped with her neck and stomach strength. She's getting more interested in her surroundings (finally noticing them, it seems) so that helps distract her enough to keep her sitting long enough to get those muscles working.

The biggest thing that has happened is rolling over! I took these pictures a week late (it's what always happens so I just go with it instead of stressing out) and after I got done, the little squirrelly girl rolled over! To really impress me, she even managed to roll back again so she went from back-to-front and then from front-to-back. She did it all.day.long. She was a little later doing this than her ambitious sister, so she must have figured she'd one-up her by doing both at the same time. Well played, little sister, well played.

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10 for the weekend

1. I've been feeling a bit more on my game lately. Just a little bit. I have a little more motivation, a little more pep in my step, a little more energy. It's been working in my favor. I have no idea where it came from, but it feels as though my pregnancy-haze-exhaustion has lifted and I feel myself again. It couldn't come at a better time, as the long winter months seem to be lasting forever and my mood had been going down hill.

2. I've finally seen some progress with our time outs that I've been doing when Josie misbehaves. It's so hard as a first time parent to figure out how to discipline a child. I've heard all these different approaches, opinions (some very strong), and methods. It seems that you have to be either on one side or the other, and my question is why can't there be a middle ground? Why do we as parents have to be against each other? Different ways work for different kids. Knowing this, I have had to experiment to see what is most effective for Josie. After months of doing time outs, I think this is the one. Today, while she was screaming and throwing a full on tantrum in her time out spot, I let go to see if she'd stay (something she hasn't had the chance to do before because she usually bolts). She did! She scooted over a foot or so to get away from me, and then just sat there crying. After a while, I asked her why she was in time out. She usually doesn't answer me so I end up explaining what she did, why it is wrong, and how to do the right thing. This time, she said right away "chair" meaning that she stood on the chair when she wasn't supposed to. She knew! She got it! So we talked a little more about it, and when I said "I love you" she immediately  jumped in my arms for a hug and kiss. I was so proud of her. I always try to end time outs with an affirmation that I still love her just not that behavior, and she understood. I'm so thankful that it's paid off because holding a screaming toddler in one spot for five minutes is no fun task. I've been trying to teach her what "obey" and "disobey" means because I know that understanding that concept will help so much with God's plan and understanding what sin is. She does seem to be getting it more and more.

3. We don't have much planned for this weekend other than a fun birthday party that was rescheduled due to the weather. The birthday boy just turned one and has never been in a pool (oh, did I mention it's a pool party?) and Josie hasn't been in one since last summer, so it should be interesting to see the reactions. I'm not too worried about her though, she's up for anything most of the time. 

4. I went to Walmart yesterday because Katie @ For Lauren and Lauren had mentioned that there were skinny jeggings for $10 each in a multitude of colors. I figured it was worth at least looking at. I'm not usually a fan of jeggings, but I like the off colored ones, like black, gray, green, etc. I just really don't like the denim colored imitators. Anyway, we got there, found them, and I found not one, not two, but three pairs that fit decent. Miracle, I tell you. As we were leaving the clothing department (that I have never ever given a second glance at in the past), we found the actual jeggings that she had been talking about. I guess I had bought real jeans (extra stretchy) and they were $11 instead of $10. I was willing to pay the extra dollar for them. What a win for me! I don't feel like I can wear regular shirts with jeggings, but I can with skinny jeans so my closet feels like it has tripled in size and options now that I have a few more skinny  jeans to wear with my boots. I love surprise shopping trips like this!

5. I brought AJ to the chiropractor on Wednesday. She has not been herself lately, although I'm not sure what I'm basing that on since she was a happy smiley (sleepy) baby for one month, and now has been a fussy, always-needs-to-be-held, not-so-smiley baby her second month of life. In particular, I noticed that when I laid her down on her back, no matter where it was, she screamed ridiculously loud and instantly. It didn't seem right to me and I know a few people that have brought their babies in to the chiropractor, so we tried it. There was an immediate difference. She was like a different baby and has been ever since. She smiles, laughs, "plays" independently while laying on the floor (which she's never done without fussing the whole time), sleeps even better (never been an issue but I love that it's even easier). I cannot even believe it. I am so thankful that we were able to get in right away and that the results were so obvious. 

6. AJ stands for Audrey Joy, in case you are wondering. I'm too lazy to type out Audrey every time and I kind of like that both my girls have a  tomboy nickname to go with their girly personalities. 

7. I haven't been to the gym since Monday which means I'm going to have to go come rain or shine (or night or day) both days this weekend. And then again on this coming Monday. Ugh. I do like to work out, it's just hard to find time and I haven't been able to pull myself out of bed in the early mornings. Well actually, AJ has been up ready to eat right when I would be leaving. No, no, don't think that's my excuse. I'm fully aware that I could just feed her twenty minutes earlier than I was planning on getting up and could still get out the door and back before hubby has to go to work, but that idea is quite daunting at 5:30 AM. Maybe someday I'll have that kind of will power. In the meantime, 8:30 PM is much more manageable. I get to leave the house after being cooped up all day with two energetic littles and can sleep in to the normal time in the morning. Thank you God that hubby does bed time. It makes it a lot easier to slip out the door and not feel like I am missing something because all I do when not going to the gym is catch up on emails, blogs, and tv. Not exactly productive. 

8. I made a large breakfast of waffles and deer sausage this morning since my parents were here. Then my sister came over with Caribou Coffee (my absolute favorite, today she got me a skinny turtle mocha). It was a fabulous breakfast, but now I'm thinking I'm done eating for the day... ask me again at noon how I'm feeling!

9. For Valentine's Day, hubby had his parents watch the girls and we headed to Texas Roadhouse for some steaks. He was feeling them something fierce and I wasn't about to object. The wait time was 75-90 minutes, which we fully expected, so we sat down and enjoyed the time with just the two of us to talk, laugh, and just enjoy each other without the kids for a few hours. I was completely shocked by how negative everyone was around us about the wait time. It was Valentine's Day, what did they expect? We ended up being quite entertained by our neighbors in the waiting area. People watching is so fascinating. We also ended up eating way too much food and bringing home enough for two full meals later. I'm still feeling full now, come to think of it. (So seriously, need to be done with large meals - that's two in three days.)

10. I have so many books I want to read and have no time to read them. I'm reading Anna Karenina right now and while I know I'll be glad I read it once I've finished, I am having a hard time getting through it. I love Russian culture and am fascinated with their customs and traditions, but it is still a hard read. I need to just do it though, because my list of books to read has grown exponentially since I started it and they won't read themselves! This entire paragraph screams nerd alert, doesn't it? I'm fine with that.




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Audrey Joy - Two Months Old

On the 18th of January, Audrey turned two months old. The changes that have taken place seem minor, but she has taken a huge leap from  newborn to infant or baby. There is no newborn left in this this little girl. 

We went to the doctor to do the usual check up and vaccines. She screamed something fierce from the shots but calmed down a lot quicker than I had expected as soon as I was holding her. Here are her stats:

According to Babycenter.com, her stats compared to Josie's are:

I was really surprised to see that she is that much smaller than Josie! But then again, these stats for Jo are different than what I was told at the time. These seem more accurate to me because I never felt like Josie was a lot bigger than other babies, and if she had truly been 95%, she would have been, right? Anyways, I digress.

Audrey is HEALTHY. She's perfect. I just like comparisons for the fun of it. She is a peanut compared to her sister, but only time will tell if she catches up or not!

She still loves to sleep and once she gets in to the deep sleep mode, she's out for hours. When she's tired, she gets crabby but it is pretty easy to get her settled down and to sleep by just swaddling her tight and holding her pacifier in (cannot wait for her to figure out how to hold on to that thing!). I'd say nine times out of ten, if she's crying or fussing, it's because she's tired. She just loves to sleep.

She's a great eater. No problems at all! My production has been great and we have had no hiccups since those first couple of weeks.

She's wearing all 0-3 months clothes and has plenty of room left in them for another month or two. We are finally using cloth diapers (finished up the last of the disposables) and I think we'll use the FLIP diapers for her since they seem to fit her body well. She has not had any blow outs with them, which is awesome since she was having at least one a day with the disposables. I was sick of that. Josie is using our other cloth diapers that have stretched out. I initially didn't like them for her since they leaked a lot, but now that she's grown a bit more, they fit great and she's having a lot less leaks. I'm hoping we have a good experience with Audrey and cloth diapers because I really do prefer them over disposables.

She is such a smiler! I feel like she just lives for the moments when our face is hovering over hers. She coos, laughs, and giggles. She loves when we sing or make silly noises. She won't take her eyes off of us the whole time and if we move out of her view and then come back a minute or two later, she picks up right where we left off. It's so much fun.

The other thing worth noting is how much she loves to be held and how much she is a mama's girl. It warms my heart how much she loves to cuddle and when she nuzzles her head into my neck, I could just die. It's so awesome. Combine that with Josie's new thing - hugging and kissing at random - and this mama has the best life ever.

Now for the pictures! Here she is, our little camera-lovin' smiley babe.

Outtakes:

And the comparison of both girls:

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Smiles

Audrey's smile makes my day! I got a video of her flirting with me a little in between her long slumbers (girl likes her sleep). 

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Hint of a Smile

Oh this girl's smile makes a mama happy! Great start to the day.

Audrey Joy - One Month

Audrey turned one month old on the 18th of December. Whoa that month seemed to fly by! 

After a terrible first two weeks of breast feeding, we got on the same page and have had no problems at all. By the rate she's growing, I know she's getting plenty of food and she seems happy. Just this week, I noticed that she's starting to outgrow her newborn clothes so I'm excited to start having her wear all of her new 0-3 month clothes. They've been staring at me in the closet this whole time. 

She definitely doesn't look like a newborn anymore! It's crazy how much they change right away. I have the fabric I used with Josie for her monthly pictures, so I will try each month to get as close to a similar picture as I can just to see the differences between them. 

Audrey, One Month

 We're finally getting more wake time with Audrey. We've settled into a good routine that vaguely looks like this each day:

Wake up around 8:30, bath, wait for mom to get Josie breakfast, eat, hang out til nap time.

Nap time usually from 10:00-1:00 (sometimes a little later), eat, stay wide awake until around 3:30 or 4:00, sleep hard, nap time.

Nap time usually from 4:00-7:00, eat, stay wide awake again until 10:00, eat/dream feed, bed time.

Her nights are great! She either wake up once at 2:30 and again at 5:30 (she often skips the 2:30 one though) and is only awake for about 10-15 minutes total. We had a few hiccups in the beginning with falling back asleep restfully, but she's got that down now. No more "false alarms" where she acts asleep but then cries out once we are in bed ready to sleep ourselves. Glad that's done.

She does awesome with tummy time. I can't believe how tolerant she is when it comes to being left face down on a rug or blanket with hardly any neck control. She's gotten pretty good though. I will have to start watching for her to roll over (no more just trusting she won't move!).

We've only had a couple incidents with Josie being too aggressive around her sister. It's never intentional; she's just stronger than she thinks and throws things too often. Usually it's a book she's bringing to me with too much excitement. Only once has she actually made Audrey cry. It was no big deal but I'm hoping that seeing Audrey cry out helped Josie see how hard she was throwing down the book! Nothing I say makes a difference. Girl likes to read I guess.

It took a solid three weeks for her to figure out how to really cry. She was so quiet right away and just made little peeps here and there. Now she lets me know much louder what she thinks, but she's pretty easy to calm down and we hardly ever have to resort to the "shushing" sound that we had to do with Josie. (Shushing as loud as we can in her ear to act as white noise to calm her down. Worked awesome for her). I've done it with Audrey a few times and it does help, but most of the time it's not needed.

She loves to be held. Baby wearing happens a lot more this time around and I'm so thankful for my Moby wrap. (I have a cloth that is the right length but not actually a Moby wrap, and just recently got an actual Moby wrap. They both work great.) She falls asleep best laying on my chest (not daddy's, just mine) and loves to be swaddled up nice and tight. Since I have the time, I am fine with holding her for part of her naps. I mix it up enough that she doesn't rely on it, but we both really enjoy a good cuddle.

Here are some outtakes to our photo shoot. I really wanted a picture that was similar to Josie's, so even though some of these were good, they didn't make the final cut. Let's not talk about how poor quality they are or how the lighting is completely different than Jo's pictures.

And lastly, here is a side by side shot of the girls at one month old. What do you think? We hear that they look identical and that they look nothing the same, so weigh in with your opinion!

Pretty good first month if I do say so myself!

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Professional Pictures

Want to see the pictures my friend Penny took for our family? They are AWESOME. She posted them on her photography blog, so click here and check them out! Here's a sneak peak:

Can you handle that cuteness?!! Check out the link above to see the rest. It's worth your time, promise.



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Things to Remember

I went back through my blog posts I wrote when Josie was the age Audrey is now and was disappointed with the lack of detail I had. To avoid this, I'm just going to list a bunch of things here. I'm all about the random lists these days (to match my random thoughts I guess).

1. Audrey sleeps amazing. We thought that Josie was a good sleeper but in comparison she was terrible. Okay she wasn't terrible at all, but Audrey is a champ. She goes to bed for real at around 11:00 and doesn't get up until 5:30. I feed her a tiny bit, never a full meal, and she sleeps until 8:30 or when I wake her up. She does eat more in the morning to make up for it, but then will take a great 3 hour nap in the morning, have some wake time in the afternoon, and naps again for most of the rest of the day. 

2. Audrey is super hard to wake up. I can spend up to an hour trying to wake her and it does nothing. I give up trying to wake her to feed her! She has set her own schedule and there's nothing I can do about it. My body will just have to adjust to it, even though it is fighting to produce more milk than necessary and at the wrong times. Eventually I know it will get better.

3. She's almost three weeks old and still fitting in newborn clothing. Josie didn't ever really fit in newborn clothes so it's a little strange for me to see all of the 0-3 month clothes waiting to be worn and ignore them for now. She's so small to us.

4. She hardly ever cries. At bath time, she wakes up, looks around, makes a few small peeps, and goes with the flow. She really only loses it when I can't get there right away. Otherwise, she just makes a few "warning peeps" that she's awake and hungry and if I'm able to get there within 5 minutes (which is most of the time) she never cries at all.

5. Audrey has a bit of digestion issues. I can tell she's gassy based on her movements. She squirms a lot and grunts while sleeping, so I bought PediaCare Gas Relief drops and it seems to be helping. This being said, she never spits up. In fact, the one time she has, we both were surprised by it and I didn't even remember what to do! She had this look on her face like "what was that?!" and hasn't done it since. I'm sure this will change, but it has caught me off guard. 

6. She has had some terrible baby acne (way more than Josie did). It started on her forehead and moved it's way down her whole face. It's clearing up a bunch, but she looks so splotchy right now. It comes out a lot more when the flash goes off in pictures and in the natural sunlight, but otherwise you hardly notice it. She's still super cute. :)

7. She can be held constantly (loves to cuddle) or set down for long periods of time and doesn't fuss about it. Amazing. Enough said.

8. She's such a blessing to us. She's used to her sister screaming and doesn't even react when there is chaos around her. Josie likes to look at her and sometimes will give her kisses. I can't wait to watch their relationship grow.

9. At her two week appointment, we learned that she hasn't grown in length much but now weights 8 lbs 15 oz (was 8 lb 6 oz at birth). You can definitely tell by looking at her that she has grown a lot! No more squishy face and she doesn't look like a fragile newborn. 

10. Girlfriend has long skinny feet. They are just like her daddy's and look so different than mine and Jo's. I could just stare at her hands and feet all day... so sweet.

That's enough for now. I'll probably do another post like this with more details later.

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Sisters

I had low expectations for Josie meeting Audrey. She's only (almost) 17 months old. Come on, how much can she really understand? We'd been prepping her as much as we could, talking about the "baby", pointing to my belly, practicing saying her name, but generally she seemed to ignore us as much as possible and showed very little signs that she understood. Sure, she liked patting my belly and other babies, but none of that really meant she understood.

She'd been staying with her grandma and grandpa while we were at the hospital, so they worked hard on getting her to say "Audrey". Also, her grandpa's tradition is to buy a small stuffed animal horse and bring it with to the hospital when he meets the baby. Of course, the horse had been within Jo's view at their house, so they'd been working on explaining how that horse was for her sister, Audrey. 

It turned out that Grandma and Josie were the first people to arrive to the hospital, so Jo ended up being the first one besides hubby and I to see her. How cool is that? She came running into the room saying "Baby? Baby! Baby? Baby." She said it with a question-like tone, excitement, a factual tone, and repeat over and over. Hubby picked her up and she looked really close for maybe two minutes before moving on. I couldn't have asked for more. 

Once Grandpa caught up and came in the room, the next big focus for Josie was getting that horse she'd been wanting to hold for so long. Grandpa gave it to her and told her to bring it to the baby. She listened and "shared" it with her, but mostly she was just so excited to hold it. She spent most of the rest of her time there sharing it with everyone and passing it around. It was pretty sweet. She still calls the horse "Audrey horse". I don't know if she understands that Audrey's name is just Audrey and not "Audrey horse".

She was pretty happy to have a little one-on-one with us too. Glad she missed us a little bit at least!

All of her life, Josie has been the main event with everyone around. Being the first grand kid on both sides, she knows how to get laughs and generally gets a ridiculous amount of attention. With the addition of her cousin four months ago, she's learned to share it and how to interact with a baby, so we were blessed to have that part learned. She didn't seem jealous at all and was happy to clown around with those interested around her. Generally, after that initial interest, she was not interested in anything Audrey related. I'd take that over jealousy any day.



There was one point in the day that she wanted to hold the baby. We got pictures and I'm so glad we did, because it was priceless. She was all about it, got a good look, and was done. She even pushed her away like "Okay, let's play with the next toy!" Too funny.

Initial thought  - "Yeah, holding this baby is the most fun!"

And we're done. 

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Audrey's Birth Story Part 3

Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here if you missed either of them!

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Once the Epidural was in, I fell into a restless sleep. I would wake up every five to ten minutes because of all of the activity in the room and time seemed to go so slow. It was 8:15 AM. By 10:00 or so, my nurse checked me and said that I was at 8 cm and almost fully effaced. That was awesome news. It didn't seem to have been that long and progress was obviously being made. She said to let me know when I felt like pushing, but I figured it would be a while before that. I slept a little more and woke up a couple of times when I could feel the contractions high up on my stomach. I figured the drugs were not as strong at this point and planned to have the nurse give a little more. When she came back to check in again, she just noted what I told her and said to let her know when I wanted to push again. I was surprised that she wasn't going to change anything, but too drowsy to really care since they weren't hurting.

After a couple more contractions, I noticed that I felt them more in the middle of my stomach and told hubby that it felt like things were moving down, although I didn't really feel like pushing. My nurse was adamant that I would feel like it soon, so I just kept waiting (much more awake now!) to feel it. Not even five minutes later, I could feel that familiar urge to push and she got me ready to go. The midwife and her trainee came in, watched me push through a contraction, and all jumped into place frantically. They said that I was doing great and that she'd be here in a few minutes. WHAT? I thought this would take at least 20 minutes and was willing to do it for hours like I had to do for Josie. I didn't believe them. It didn't seem possible.

After a couple more pushes, they told me she had a ton of hair and that it was super dark. I could feel the contractions but there was no ring of fire like before. I didn't feel the urge to scream out and was laughing through part of it because it seemed so surreal. They had me push one last time and out she slipped. Seriously, she slipped out. It was like nothing. She made a bit of noise and they put her on my chest right away. I wasn't sick or nauseous and was fully able to enjoy the moment. They were cleaning out her nose and mouth since she had some Meconium in the amniotic fluid. I held her for quite a while before letting them take her to get cleaned up.

We all took turns guessing her weight (because yes, the midwives and nurses were awesome and acted like family at this point) and were all guessing around 9 lbs. We were all wrong when she weighed in at just 8 lb 6 oz. That may not seem small to you, but in our families, she is the smallest baby by more than half a pound! Hubby was a big baby, my sister and I were, Josie and her cousin was, etc. She is also longer measuring at 21 1/4 inches long. (Josie was 9 lb 7 oz and 20 1/2 inches long). 

I look out of it but I think I was just blinking. I was actually smiling and crying and laughing more than anything at how wonderful she is.

A lot of hair and sweet pink skin. She looks like Josie a little but they have their differences. You can definitely tell they are sisters though!

The midwife and her trainee did their thing while we took pictures of her, texted our friends and family, and laughed with each other at how truly blessed we were. We were just giddy! It was so different than with Josie, where I was completely out of it for the first couple hours of her life.

Our immediate family came in the afternoon and met her. Josie got to meet her first, actually, and I'll post those details as a separate post. It was also a sweet moment.

My recovery has been awesome. My nurse said I had hardly any swelling. I did tear along the same spot as before but it was minimal and my pain was more discomfort than anything. I was up and moving around easily and already feel almost back to normal just four days later.

Audrey is such a joy (it's her middle name too - so perfect). She's sweet, hardly fusses, eats pretty well, and loves to cuddle. My mama heart is full.

I had a really hard time finding a picture of her face, so this zoomed in shot is the best we have from her first day. Oh well!

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